Rent control sounds like an easy way to make housing affordable.

In practice, it often rewards the wrong people and discourages new supply. Comment “Housing” and we’ll send you the full video. When government caps rents below market levels, landlords and builders face weaker incentives to create new housing. Capital moves elsewhere, maintenance becomes less attractive, and the city ends up with fewer homes than people want. If many people want the same artificially cheap apartment, landlords can become more selective. They may favor applicants with higher incomes, stronger credit, or lower perceived risk. The subsidy meant to help struggling families can end up going to someone who could have paid market rent anyway. Meanwhile, people with fewer options face longer searches, fewer available units, and more competition for the housing that remains. Higher demand plus restricted supply produces higher prices. Rent control tries to fight that reality by suppressing one price, but it leaves the underlying scarcity untouched.